The raw material which is used by physical plant is crude palm oil (CPO) from the CPO storage tank. CPO is feed at the flow rate about 35-60 tons/hour. The initial temperature of CPO is at 40 – 60°C. The feed is pumped through the heat recovery system, that is plate heat exchanger to increase the temperature around 60 – 90°C.

After that, there is about 20% of the CPO feed to into the slurry and mix with the bleaching earth (6 – 12kg/ton CPO) to form slurry (CPO + Bleaching earth). The agitator inside the slurry tank will mixed the CPO and bleaching earth completely. Then, the slurry will go into the bleacher.

At the same time, another 80% of the CPO is pumped through another plate heat exchanger (PHE) and steam heater to increase the CPO temperature to 90 – 130°C (it is a desired temperature for the reaction between CPO and phosphoric acid). Then, the CPO feed is pumped to static mixers and the phosphoric acid is dosed at 0.35 – 0.45 kg/ton. Inside there, the intensive mixing is carried out with the crude oil for precipitation up the gums. The precipitation of gums will ease the later filtration process, avoid the scale formation in deodorizer and heating surface. The degumming CPO then will go into bleacher.

In the bleacher, there are 20% slurry and 80% degummed CPO will mix together and the bleaching process occur. The practice of bleaching involves the addition of bleaching earth to remove any undesirable impurities (all pigments, trace metals, oxidation products) from CPO and this improves the initial taste, final flavor and oxidative stability of product. It also helps to overcome problems in subsequent processing by adsorption of soap traces, pro-oxidant metal ions, decomposes peroxides, colour reduction, and adsorbs other minor impurities. The temperature inside the bleacher must be around 100°C – 130°C to get the optimum bleaching process for 30 minutes of bleaching period. The low pressure steam is purged into bleacher to agitate the concentrated slurry for a better bleaching condition.

The slurry containing the oil and bleaching earth is then passed through the Niagara filter to give a clean, free from bleaching earth particles oil. The temperature must be maintain at around 80 – 120°C for good filtration process. In the Niagara filter, the slurry passes through the filter leaves and the bleaching earth is trapped on the filter leaves. Actually, the bleaching earth must be clear from Niagara filter after45minutes in operation to get a good filtration. Bleached palm oil (BPO) from Niagara filter is then pumped into buffer tank as a temporary storage before further processing.

Usually, a second check filter, trap filter is used in series with the Niagara filter to double ensure that no bleaching earth slips occur. The presence of bleaching earth fouls deodorizer, reduces the oxidative stability of the product oil and acts as a catalyst for dimerizaition and polymerization activities. So, the “blue test” is carried out for each batch of filtration to ensure the perfect filtration process. This test indicates whether any leaking is occurring in Niagara filter or trap filter. Hence, any corrective actions can be taken intermediately.

The BPO comes out from the filter and passes through another series of heat recovery system, Schmidt plate heat exchanger and spiral (thermal oil: 250 – 305°C) heat exchanger to heat up the BPO from 80 – 120°C until 210 – 250°C.

The hot BPO from spiral heat exchanger then proceeds to the next stage where the free fatty acid content and the color are further reduced and more important, it is deodorized to produce a product which is stable and bland in flavor.

In the pre-stripping and deodorizing column, deacidification and deodorization process happen concurently. Deodorization is a high temperature, high vacuum and steam distillation process. A deodorizer operates in the following manner: (1) dearates the oil, (2) heat up the oil, (3) steam strips the oil and (4)cools the oil before it leaves the system. All materials if contact are stainless steel.

In the column, the oil is generally heated to approximately 240 – 280°C under vacuum. A vacuum of less than 10 torr is usually maintained by the use of ejectors and boosters. Heat bleaching of the oil occurs at this temperature through the thermal destruction of the carotenoid pigments. The use of direct steam ensures readily removal of residue free fatty acids, aldehydes and ketones which are responsible for unacceptable odor and flavors. The lower molecular weight of vaporized fatty acids rises up the column and pulls out by the vacuum system. The fatty acid vapor leaving the deodorizer are condensed and collected in the fatty acid condenser as fatty acid. The fatty acids then is cooled in the fatty acid cooler and discharged to the fatty acid storage tank with temperature around 60 – 80°C as palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD), a by-product from refinery process.

The bottom product of the pre-stripper and deodorizer is Refined, Bleached, Deodorized Palm Oil (RBDPO). The hot RBDPO (250 – 280°C) is pumped through Schmidt PHE to transfer its heat to incoming BPO with lower temperature. Then, it passes through another trap filters to have the final oil polishing (120 – 140°C) to prevent the earth traces from reaching the product tank. After that, the RBDPO will pass through the RBDPO cooler and plate heat exchanger to transfer the heat to the CPO feed. The RBDPO then is pumped to the storage with temperature 50 – 80°C.

Palm Fatty Acid Distillation Plant

The separation of liquid mixture into their several components is one of the major process of the chemical industries, and distillation is the most widely used method of achieving this end: it is the key operation of the oil refinery. Though out the chemical industry the demand for pure products, coupled with a relentless pursuit of greater efficiency, has necessitated continued research into techniques of distillation. The distillation column is used in this purpose.

The distillation column which have to be designed with a larger range in capacity than any other types of chemical engineering equipment, with single columns from 0.3 to 10m in diameter and from 3m to upwards of 75m in height. The purpose of designing is to achieve the desired product quality at minimum cost, but also to provide constant purity of product even though there may be some variation in feed composition. The vertical cylindrical column provides in a compact form, with the minimum of ground utilization, a large number of separate stages of vaporization and condensation.

In practice, distillation may be carried out by either of two principal methods. The first method is based on the production of a vapor by boiling the liquid mixture to be separated and condensing the vapors without allowing any liquid to return to the still. There is then no reflux. The second method is based on the return of part of condensate to the still under such condition that this returning liquid is brought into intimate contact with the vapor on their way to the condenser. Either of these methods may be conducted as a continuous process or as a batch process.

PFAD Plant Description

a) Feed Raw Material - Palm Fatty Acid Distillate (PFAD)

b) i) Major Product Produced - Distillate Fatty Acids (DFA)

ii) By Product Produced - Precut-Lighter Fatty Acid Component

- Residue

PFAD Process Description

The feed Palm Fatty Acid Distillate (PFAD) from storage tank with temperature around 50 – 100°C will first passes through a heat exchanger network.

The temperature of PFAD will increase to approximately 200 –220°C. Then the hot feed will enters to the Degasifier for separating some impurities and light fatty acid presented in the feed under vacuum system.

After that, the heavy components of fatty acid (C10, C12, C14, C16 & C18) come out from the bottom of Degasifier will go into column C for more separation between light and heavy components of fatty acids. Before that, there are three distillation column are used in distillation process. The products of these 3 columns are as follow:

In column C, the feed with temperature 220 – 255°C will further heating by thermal oil boiler until temperature become 240 – 300°C under vacuum system. The fatty acids will evaporate under the vacuum condition and separation of light fatty acid and heavy fatty acid will occur. At the top of column C, the light fatty acid (precut with lower carbon number

At the same time, the heavy fatty acid from the bottom of Column C (C16 & C18) is pumped to Column B for further separation. There is high temperature inside the column B which is supplied by thermal oil reboiler (290 – 310°C) will contribute to the vaporization of fatty acids. Therefore the temperature will increase (220 – 250°C) during the distillation process because of the higher boiling point of the fatty acids feed. The light fatty acid (DFA) from the vaporization of fatty acid is pulled out by the vacuum system into a reflux holder. When the refluks is overflow, the excess DFA is pumped to the heat exchangers and cooled down by the soft water and the PFAD feed. The DFA then is further cooled down in spiral heat exchanger (hot water/DFA) and plate heat exchanger (Cooling tower water/DFA) before sending to storage at 60 – 90°C.

On the other hand, the bottom product of column B is residue, the heavy fatty acids component is pumped to the heat exchanger (Residue/PFAD feed and Residue/Hot Water) before going to storage tank. The uncompleted distillate will recycles back to column B for further separation.

Fractionation: Value added process?

The demand for liquid oils has increased in recent years, mainly for salad and cooking uses and an important property for such oils is low cloud point, which is the temperature at which turbidity appears when the oil is cooled under standard conditions. Liquids oils with a low cloud point are desirable because of the widespread use of household refrigeration.

In order to cater for a wide range of markets, the Malaysian refiners start to offer product which are “harder”(Stearin) and “more liquid”(olein) than palm oil. These are accomplished trough a simple process of fractionation which is based on two fundamental operations:

1)Crystallization

2)Filtration

Fractionation of palm oil can be described as follow. The triglycerides found in the oil have different melting points. At certain temperature, the lower melting temperature triglycerides will crystallize into solid separating the oils into both liquid (Olein) and solid (Stearin) fraction. The fraction can then be separated by filtration.

It is worth mentioning that in palm oil fractionation, palm olein is the premium product and the palm stearin is the discount product. In Malaysia, fractionation of palm oil into palm olein and palm stearin is accomplished using two types of processes which are “Viz Dry” and “Detergent Fractionation”.

The dry fractionation is used to separate the palm olein and palm stearin from the RBDPO produced by physical treatment. The RBDPO is passed through the further fractionation process to get various grade of palm olein and palm stearin. Usually, there are three types of olein are produced: (1) normal grade olein, (2) super grade olein and (3) olein with cloud point 7 – 8°C.

After that, the oil is pumped to the crystallizer. The crystallization system is a batch type and is equipped with special crystallizers operating alternatively. These crystallizers are made up of vertical cylindrical vessel full of thermo-regulated water which submerged barrels containing the oil to be fractionated: each of these barrels is fitted with a mechanical agitator. An automatic station controls the temerature in the various crystallizers.

The crystallization process is carried out to remove the higher melting glycerides which cause liquid oils to become cloudy and more viscous at low temperature. There are 3 factors (temperature, time and agitation), have a fundamental importance on the formation and character of the crystal:

1.The lowering of temperature causes, because of supersaturating the higher melting component to separate from a solution.

2.Agitation facilitates the formation of small crystals.

3.Time with a gradual decrease in temperature and stillness, promotes the formation of longer crystals.

The solution is pumped batch-wise into the crystallizer according to a pre-established programme. In the crystallizer, the crystal formation and growth occurs as the oil is agitated and cooled sing chilled water and cool water filled in the jackets or cooling coils of the crystallizer. Cooling can be governed by controlling either the oil or water temperature.

Hydrogenation

Hydrogenation is the most widely used method of all the oil modification processes, to reduce the degree of unsaturated in the fatty acid groups of the glycerides. It is a catalytic process whereby the number of double bonds are reduced and by the same time isomerization of the residual fatty acids is promoted. Liquid oils with unsaturated triglycerides are thus transformed into fats containing a higher % age of saturated triglycerides: Hydrogenation is often called hardening of oils and soft fats.

Catalytic hydrogenation, which has been known in fat technology since the beginning of this century, is used increasingly for the preparation of ‘tailor-made’ fats.

The complex system consists of three phases: liquid oil, gaseous hydrogen and solid catalyst. Hence there are many different internal surfaces through which the hydrogen molecules have to pass until they reach the double bonds of the unsaturated triglycerides adsorbed on the catalyst surface. As soon as the unsaturated bonds are saturated, the triglyceride moves off the catalyst surface, thus enabling the next unsaturated molecule to be adsorbed and processed.

The overall hydrogenation rage depends on the quality of the reactant involved, the degree of refining of the oil to be hydrogenated, the activity and nature of the catalyst. In addition reaction parameters such as hydrogen pressure, catalyst concentration, reaction temperature, stirring, etc have an influence. In spite of these numerous reaction parameters that affecting the quality of the desired product, fat-technologist have resolved the operating conditions required for the preparation of tailor-made fats. This process is established mainly to add value to by byproducts from the refinery. The raw materials are from refinery: Palm Fatty Acid Distillate (PFAD) and Refined Bleached Deodorized (RBD). Basically, stearin is the main raw material for this plant.

Hydrogenation Process Description

There are various kind of oils used as the feed of this plant depends on the market demands, there are DFA, PFAD, RBDSt, precut and split residue. Firstly, the fatty acid feed from the storage tank (60 – 70°C) is pumped to the feed preheater. In the feed preheater, the fatty acid feed is heated up by the hot hydrogenated FA from plant until 140 – 170°C, before entering the reactor for hydrogenation process

Then, the hot feed is transferred to the reactor autoclave for reaction. The reactor consisted of the nickel catalyst which play an important role in the reaction as follow: